GoKawiil
Tech News
Milt Windler, one of four Mission Control flight directors during the Apollo 13 crisis in 1970, has died at age 94, according to a family notice posted online. He joined NASA as a flight director in 1968, leading shifts for Apollo 8's lunar orbit, Apollo 10, the Apollo 12, 14 and 15 moon landings, and all three crewed Skylab missions.
Tim Conners, NASA's former lead propulsion engineer on the Blackbird program in the 1990s, spoke with The War Zone about NASA's apparent work to return SR-71 Tail 844 to flight. The interview follows reporting that satellite imagery showed Tail 844 missing from Armstrong Flight Research Center since at least May, and that NASA has contacted former SR-71 personnel about rejoining the effort. NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman had earlier teased a new high-speed, high-altitude X-plane using a silhouette resembling the Blackbird.
NASA administrator Jared Isaacman said SpaceX intends to phase out its Falcon and Dragon systems as it focuses on Starship, prompting NASA to consider purchasing two additional crewed launches from Boeing's Starliner. NASA also announced it will spend $359 million to help Boeing rebuild the reaction control thrusters blamed for problems on Starliner's last mission.
NASA's Swift observatory, in orbit for over two decades, is losing altitude and expected to drop below 185 miles by early to mid-October, a point at which operations and science observations will likely stop. A robotic spacecraft built by contractor Katalyst Space Technologies, launched in July to boost Swift's orbit, instead began spinning uncontrollably and burned up reentering Earth's atmosphere. NASA has since reactivated Swift's Burst Alert Telescope and resumed automatic pointing at gamma ray bursts, actions it says have accelerated the satellite's orbital decay.
Katalyst Space Technologies built and launched a satellite called Link under a $30 million, nine-month NASA contract to boost the Swift Observatory into a higher orbit before it decayed. Link launched July 3 but suffered a malfunction weeks later that sent it spinning out of control, and NASA confirmed in August the rescue attempt was off. Swift, launched in 2004, lacks its own propulsion and remains at the mercy of atmospheric drag.
NASA's SpaceX Crew-13 mission is set to launch October 1 at 11:10AM ET from Cape Canaveral, carrying commander Jessica Watkins, pilot Luke Delaney, CSA astronaut Joshua Kutryk and Roscosmos cosmonaut Sergey Teteryatnikov to the ISS. The crew will relieve Crew-12, who briefly sheltered in their capsule in June after an air leak was detected on the station, and NASA says the docking will be the fastest in US space station history at seven hours and 50 minutes.
Blue Origin CEO Dave Limp said the company's first external capital raise has not yet closed and has attracted strong investor demand, calling it "oversubscribed." He spoke at a Washington tech summit, days after the Wall Street Journal reported the company had already raised $10 billion at a $140 billion valuation, with Jeff Bezos contributing $2 billion to the round. Limp did not confirm those figures or say how much Bezos has invested in total since founding the company in 2000.
Researchers at NYU Langone used mouse models with genetically modified nematode-specific macrophage populations to study how a prior type 2 immune response—triggered by parasitic infection—reprograms lung-resident macrophages. The team found these reprogrammed macrophages later helped mice tolerate a subsequent, unrelated viral infection with less lung damage, using genomic, microscopy, flow cytometry and functional assays in mice engineered to lack specific macrophage populations or the Arg1 gene.
SpaceX has told NASA and private space station developers including Axiom Space, Voyager Space, and Vast Space that it intends to stop flying Crew Dragon and Falcon 9 missions to low-Earth orbit after supporting the International Space Station through 2030. The move threatens the crew transportation backbone for NASA's two-decade effort to build a commercial human spaceflight market in orbit.
NASA faces a pivotal test of Boeing's Starliner spacecraft this year, according to reporting on the agency's crew transport plans. The report states that SpaceX's Crew Dragon is set to be retired, leaving NASA with fewer alternatives for ferrying astronauts to orbit.
SpaceX's 14th Starship test flight reached orbit for the first time on Monday, deploying 26 functioning Starlink satellites and completing a controlled splashdown of its Super Heavy booster. However, engine failures—one on the booster during ascent and descent, and one on the upper stage during ascent—forced SpaceX to cut the planned 10-hour, six-orbit mission short, returning the ship to Earth after about three hours before it exploded on Pacific splashdown.
Satellite imagery shows NASA removed SR-71A Tail No. 844 from its static display pole at Armstrong Flight Research Center earlier this year and moved it into a hangar at Edwards Air Force Base for inspection and work by ground crews. Former SR-71A test engineers, including retiree Mike Relja, say NASA recently offered them consulting roles on the project, coordinated by special projects director David Ash, though Relja expressed doubt the aircraft could actually fly again given the lack of specialized support equipment.